Pages

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

I Am Almost a Hero Now

Yeah ...so...
I just finished writing a little newspaper article about focusing on the good stuff. I was pretty happy with it. Double checked the word count. Re-read for major errors. Happy sigh.

Almost done. And right then, just as I finished, one of the kids burst into my room, I mean office. *ahem*.He was shouting"MOM!!!! The potty is flooding the house!"I decided to practice what I preached...focus on the good stuff, so I calmly said."Okay, did it overflow? I'll be right there.""NO!!MOM!! It flooded! THIS deep!!"and he held up his hands to show me an approximate 8 inch space.I started thinking more rapidly and chanting to myself "Focus on the good stuff, focus on the good stuff, focus on the good stuff."

When I arrived on the scene, I found that it wasn't actually 8 inches...probably only 2 or 3. Well now. That's more like it!I had no idea the bathroom floor could get so deep before the tidal wave broke onto the carpet. But it did break...like a mighty rushing river.Turns out the toilet didn't back up. It just ran and refilled until the tank could hold no more. There was a ginormous fountain spewing forth in power from the side of the tank.I felt like one of those Navy guys in a movie, sacrificing themselves to save the ship and crew. I think I even heard the general alarm sounding. CLANG CLANG CLANG!! "Collision. Starboard side. All repair parties man your stations!""SAVE YOURSELVES, KIDS!! I'm going under!" Imagine, if you will, the water spewing all over my face and chest in crazy bursts as I fought my way to the shut off valve. The crew is all safe, but they are confined to quarters until I find some chocolate.Now we have to slog our way down the hall to the kids rooms. It sounds like the mud outside. Squish, smoosh, squash.I am surrounded by icky wetness and slushy sounds on all sides, inside and out. Shudder.Every towel I could find has been put to work, and some old comforters too.I am still calm. I will focus on the good stuff. I will focus on the good stuff.I will not think about my landlord coming into my house or the wet laundry piles on the floor.My heart rate is racing. I feel the urge to run away... pack the kids into the van and drive into the cloudy sunset. We could go west... I hear it's dry there most of the time. I'm not worried... I know that the only reason this happened is because I am having out of town company in a couple of days. Next week everything will be completely back to normal. As normal as it gets around here, anyway.